Farrelly Brothers Do Baseball
Pitching closer to the traditional romantic comedy, Fever Pitch is a fairly harmless movie held up by good casting. A surprising turn given we are talking about the best gross out director duo of the last 40 years or so.
Jimmy Fallon plays Ben, a real nice-guy schoolteacher with one catch – he’s a mega Boston Red Sox fan. Ben meets Lindsey (Drew Barrymore in her super sweet era) who also has a catch, she’s a high-flying businesswoman dedicated to her career.
That’s about the gist of it. Ben has a group of also-fanatical baseball fan friends. Lindsey has her high rollers. Worlds collide, Lindsey gets into the baseball but at the expense of her work, and Ben gets upset when he goes to a party with Lindsey and misses the greatest comeback win in Red Sox history. The Red Sox head towards what could be a miracle year, and we have the classic romantic comedy setup.
Being a Farrelly Brothers movie, one might expect a more outrageous comedy (There’s Something About Mary, need I say more), this is not that kind of movie. It still has some funny moments, and a few reminiscent of the gross-out slapstick the brothers have become renowned for, but it leans on the heartwarming story angle. The funniest moments come from the back and forth between the two leads.
Pleasant enough, and despite not quite being the movie star type, Jimmy Fallon is ultra likeable with his puppy dog qualities. Between him and Barrymore they make it an easy movie to like, even if it does fall short of the mark of being a classic.
Leave a Reply